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A friend held a dinner party this weekend and gave two guests a copy of my book, Whippoorwill Calls. After the meal reportedly they read poems aloud from the book. Thank you, Lord.

My friend had ordered four editions before Christmas and they arrived Saturday. Earlier in the day we met briefly so I could sign the copies. She was one of the individuals who had asked me if it would be possible to buy prints. While together I showed her my three-ring binder with 8×10 glossy prints of all 22 drawings. After her guests left, she sent me a text ordering prints, a 5×7 and an 8×10, of two figure studies.

The same local company that prepared the pre-press layout is creating the prints with a white border for matting and framing. Four laminated poster-size copies of drawings are being created to place on an easel at future book signings.

True both the paperback and hardcover editions are available online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon goo.gl/G0F2GG with an author site: goo.gl/h1pkVH, yet I have contacted a Memphis independent bookseller. In addition to carrying Whippoorwill Calls, I would also like to make the prints available through his retail store. A book signing before Valentine’s Day, with books and prints would top the chart.

In preparation, last week I ordered business cards and bookmarks….oh, and a mouse pad for blog posts and my next book already underway.

the one who sows a small number of seeds will also reap a small crop and the one who sows a generous amount of seeds will also reap a generous crop. 2 Cor. 9:6 CEB

Before adopting the Brahma-Holstein calf and bottle-feeding him, I rescued dogs. It started when my mother-in-law called and asked if I would retrieve seven orphaned pups from her farm and find good homes for them. A memoir, I began today opens in 1994, with the rescue of those orphans. It was four years before this photograph was taken of Sonny, the baby bull whom I also adopted. This story is my second book, following the release of Whippoorwill Calls.

Serve the Lord with celebration! Come before him with shouts of joy! Ps. 100:1-2 CEB

Today the hardcover edition of Whippoorwill Calls arrived. Immediately I turned to the inside to see how the red Conte’ crayon figure drawings appeared in premium color and discovered they are better defined than in the paperback in standard color. I let out a sigh of relief. The hardcover passed the test and was approved for distribution.

What I didn’t expect was how the ridges and sharper edges of the hardcover would feel beneath my fingertips, or how the weight of the book would make it feel more substantial in every respect.

In printing, the company added a heavier blank page at the front and back giving Whippoorwill Calls a finished appearance.

I am filled with joy and gratitude to the Lord for directing my steps and opening doors for me to walk through not on tiptoes but confidently.

I am concluding a third year of reading daily devotions from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, yet it took 2014 before the words “I trust you Jesus” became part of my everyday thoughts as naturally as breathing. Now my mantra, I say these words silently and out loud depending on need.

While preparing images for Whippoorwill Calls, I turned to Christ to ensure the book reached market at the optimum time, then let go. I refused to push myself and others to meet some arbitrary deadline. I simply remained focused on the task at hand. God had me covered.

On Friday, November 21, my proof copy of the paperback edition arrived and the book was approved for printing and distribution. That evening a feed with my title went to global online retailers and storefronts. However, I was advised by two different individuals that a behemoth in the online industry might take a minimum of 48 hours and up to three weeks to have Whippoorwill Calls listed and available for purchase. This meant my book would possibly reach market in mid-December. The news rocked me, and not in a good way. Fear was creeping round, waiting for an opportunity to envelop me. Mantra, repeat the mantra.

Having purchased a bundle of ISBNs from Bowker, in the evening I returned to their website and completed information about my book under its assigned 13-digit identifier. Saturday morning during my devotional time Hebrews 10:23 NIV was my verse for the day: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”

Speaking with God, I reiterated going to market was in His control despite what others had to say and after meditating on His Word, my faith was steadfast. Immediately following this time with God I was nudged to go online and search my ISBN, title and authorship. In less than 24 hours and closer to 12, there it was. Whippoorwill Calls was available for purchase. Posting the news on Facebook, three friends ordered a copy.

A project begun in May is at the launch pad. The checklist has been reviewed and parts fine tuned. A test run is in progress: a copy of the paperback edition of Whippoorwill Calls is in route and scheduled to arrive in a couple of days. Once approved, it will be released for printing and global distribution…and countdown to market.

A hardcover edition in premium color is completing its revision cycle. Once the proof is available, it will go through the same steps as the paperback. The target release date for both is November 24, 2014.

as small as a mustard see, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you. Luke 17:6 NIV

Today I delivered the book package to a local pre-press group to “set the type” before it goes to the printing company. It has been an arduous six months of photographing drawings, revising poems and getting everything just so.

There have been missteps along the way. Yet, all situations have added to my learning curve as a self-published artist poet. The self-publishing company, a sole proprietorship, is 1writersdevotion.

Reaching Skyward, featured here in black and white, is one of my sketches which will be in red Conte’ crayon in the book.

An eBook is out, as of this writing.

I found centered poems with stanzas and irregular lines which need to be left justified lose something in translation, and a good deal of photographic technique applied to photos may need the images tweaked, not just pulled into a digital format without massaging.

So plans change. Two print editions of Whippoorwill Calls are being created. Both are in color and will be available in retail stores and online. The hardcover edition is in premium color.

I have faith the books will reach market in perfect timing. Why, do I say this? Because He said to ask in His name and I did.

The story behind The Brahma and me

With my first toe-tip into the blogosphere in March 2010, I began writing about my critter crew and life on the farm—their shenanigans and my delight in sharing time and space with them, as well as my reflections and my spiritual journey.

Reared in the Seattle suburbs and more importantly having never set foot on a farm, I had passed the half century mark before adopting my first calf.

Sent by my publisher to shoot dairy farms during dairy month in 1998, I captured on film a farmer pulling a half Holstein-half Brahma from his mother’s womb. At 11 days, I adopted him. Named Sonny, he rode to his new home inside the largest wire dog crate I could find placed in the back of the Dodge Ram.

For the first year of his life Sonny’s companions were primarily All-American canines. The farm has grown to include three bovines, Sonny, Holly and Buff; two equines--a line-back dun filly named Bebe and a Palomino paint gelding named Jack; two canines Sam and Luke; and 10 felines. All are rescues except for the horses.